One of the greatest challenges for human science is to understand how the human mind evolves and develops from infancy to adolescence, and how children learn to cope with the challenges of adulthood and acquire the complex cognitive, motivational and emotional abilities that enable humans to adapt to a variety of environments.

Even though the developing mind has been studied for centuries, it is only recently that scientists developed or got access to the neurobiological and methodological tools to assess and begin to understand the complex and exciting relations between the developing mind, brain, and behavior.

Inspired by the ambitious goal to study the developing mind from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, several scientists at the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) have joined forces in a new scientific network: LIBC-Junior. Founded in 2005, the LIBC is a multi-disciplinary, research and training institute dedicated to understanding the relation between brain and cognition from interdisciplinary perspectives using advanced neuroscientific research tools. In recognition of the importance of this challenge, Leiden University presented ‘Brain Function and Dysfunction across the Life Span’ as one of its primary research foci.

Scientists currently participating in LIBC-Junior (14 core LIBC members and 7 LIBC research labs), their trainees and affiliated collaborators, are interested in a wide range of fundamental questions related to healthy and atypically developing children. We address these questions using multidisciplinary approaches from social and behavioral science (psychology, linguistics, education and family science), biological science (behavioral and cognitive neuroscience, physiology), engineering science (computer science), and medical science (neurology, psychiatry, and medical imaging).

Scientists who participate in LIBC-Junior study attention, awareness, cognitive control, emotion regulation and attachment, language, memory, reading, social cognition, and environmental and family influence from developmental neuroscience perspectives (function and connectivity) in healthy children, children with neurodevelopmental disorders, and in clinical populations. LIBC-Junior scientists are excited about the possibility of taking developmental neuroscience to the next level by joining forces and combining perspectives. Explore our exciting research program and discover our attempts to work towards this challenging goal.